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I have been asked to write a short note explaining why a school should not save files in docx format. Any suggestions for improvement greatfully received Currently 90% of computer users use microsoft office to prepare documents. 10% of users do not. The problem with Microsoft Office documents is that when Microsoft changes their file format then users are forced to upgrade their computer software and hardware to the latest versions. This is a waste of money to all those who are happy with the previous versions. Governments and organisations worldwide are increasingly getting irritated with this "forced upgrade" and have asked for a standard file format that can be read with any software. The latest set of upgrades is moving from Microsoft 97 (doc) to Microsoft 00xml (docx). Microsofts objective to have docx accepted as a standard file format was rejected by the ISO on Tuesday. (It was also rejected by the UK Government with a number of technical issues to be addressed). This despite reported irregularities that include purchasing of votes in Sweden, admitted by Microsoft; rejection of Microsoft's competitors in Portugal because of lack of chairs; hijacking of standardisation committees in many countries, including USA, Italy, Colombia and Mexico; manipulations of the vote process by presidencies in Switzerland and Uruguay; replacement of an insufficiently Microsoft-friendly technical committee by a "more agreeable" one in Poland; non-acceptance of competition in Venezuela and Ukrania; and more. As a result the only accepted ISO file format for Office Applications is Oasis - or odt. In practice what does this mean - Sending files in a proprietory format (doc, docx) requires recipients to buy software to read it. This is wrong to student's families who may not be able to afford legal version of Microsoft software - Education is a right: Public data should be accessible to citizens independent of their income and their physical abilities. - Docx can be used as a local format within the school: for all communication outside the school *.doc should be used. -- Henry Wed Sep 5 20:45:38 BST 2007
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